NEF. NITROPARAFPINE SALTS. 125 



a Stroll!; acid, and into bromuitropropane, 



CH3. .Br 



en/ ^NOa, 



a neutral body, seems at first to be an argument in favor of this 

 hypothesis. I have, however, already pointed out * that one is not 

 justified in drawing from this reaction such a conclusion with regard 

 to the nature of the sodium salts, and have further demonstrated t 

 that the hypothesis of the acid making influence of negative groups or 

 radicals has absolutely no justification, and is entirely illogical. That 

 this hypothesis is no longer tenable in many cases where it has hith- 

 erto been accepted is clear. That the sodium salts of acetoacetic 

 ether and of malonic ether possess a structure which must be repre- 

 sented by the formulae 



CHg-CONa RO-CONa 



II and II 



HC-CO2R HC-COOR, 



and not, as previously supposed, by the formulae 



CH3-CO RO-CO 



I and I 



NaCHCOgR NaCHCO-.R, 



can now be regarded as settled experimentally beyond a doubt. J 



For these reasons it is almost self-evident that the metal in the 

 nitroparafiine salts cannot be bound directly to carbon, and is in all 

 probability bound to oxygen ; and the following experiments prove 

 this in a most satisfactory manner. 



I. Decomposition of Primary and Secondary Nitro- 



PARAFFINE SaLTS BY MEANS OF ACIDS. 



Assuming that nitroethane possesses the constitution 



CH3~CH,N ; ^ , 



* Amer. Cliem. Journal, XIII. 427. 

 t These Proceedings, XXVII. 157. 



t Ann. Cliem. (Liebig), CCLVIII. 261, CCLXVI. 52, CCLXXVI. 200, and 

 CCLXXVII. 59. 



